ave brought this precious Cup to Europe, and to have given
it into the keeping of Sir Parsifal. Knowledge of its whereabouts was
then lost, so that knights and heroes make it the object of long and
fruitless quests.

The second cycle of romance has to do with Charlemagne, and is mostly
in the form of translations from French literature.

The third, or classic cycle, relates to the great ones of ancient
times, presented in the role of chivalry. These embrace stories of
Alexander the Great, the Aeneid, and the Trojan war. During this period
there were two classes of songs in Germany; the minstrelsy, most in
favor with the nobility; and the old ballads, which were most popular
with the people. The latter were gradually collected by different poets
of the time, especially by Wolfram of Eschenbach and put into epic
verse, in which form they have come down to us as the Heldenbuch (or
book of heroes), and the Nibelungen-lied.

The Heldenbuch relates the deeds of Theodoric and Attila and the
outpouring of the Goths into the Roman Empire. In the Nibelungen-lied
the hero is Siegfried, the Achilles of the North, the embodiment of
beauty, courage and virtue. The same personages are met with in these
German legends, as in the Scandinavian mythology, only in the latter
they take on a more godlike form. The German Brunhild, in the
Scandinavian story becomes a Valkyriur.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the decline of the
romanticists, the loss of most of the Southern culture, and all the
literature of this time is at a low ebb, partly owing to the wars of
the Germans against the Huns.

The fourteenth century was productive of one class of literature that
was common to all Europe; namely, simple and humorous fables and
satires. "Reynard the Fox" was one of the earliest of these fables, and
remained a great favorite with the Germans, being finally immortalized
by Goethe. The same author has made us familiar with a personage who
figures in an interesting legend of the fifteenth century. Doctor
Faust, or Faustus, is a magician who by unlawful arts gains a mastery
over nature. This legend became the foundation of a number of stories
and dramas, and was put into verse by Christopher Marlowe, the English
dramatist.

The end of the sixteenth century saw a craze for Latin in Germany. The
national tongue was neglected and national poetry was translated into
Latin verse. German poets wrote in the same classic language, an